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The Best New York Style Pizza Dough and 14 Tips for Success!!

I’ve been making a lot of this NY style pizza dough recipe …. The obsession started a while back, and I’ve finally found a recipe that I love the best! After years of experiments (and I mean years!), I am now using this recipe based on recommendations from the many fine pizza makers at www.pizzamaking.com and the late great Dough Doctor, Tom Lehmann.

best New York Style pizza dough recipe

Making Pizza Dough at Home

Making NY style pizza dough is definitely somewhat of an art form. There are so many variables that can be changed aside from the ingredients alone. For example, these variables include:

  • oven temperature
  • temperature of the water used to make the dough
  • proofing methods (room temp vs cold rise)
  • order of adding the ingredients (yes, this makes a big difference!)
  • mixing time
  • use of autolyse
  • use of poolish (I don’t do this or the one before, although I have in the past)

And then of course, the toppings which can be simple or as complex as you’d like. But don’t worry too much about all of this – my method is easy and straightforward. Plus, you will make better dough than 99% of the pizza chains out there. You will not want take out anymore!

best new york pizza dough recipe cheese

My Favorite Pizza Dough: The Big Secret (How You Proof the Dough)

My all-time favorite dough is NY style dough, which really is classic pizza dough that is stretched out into a thin crust pizza. This type of pizza dough contains water, flour, salt, instant yeast, and olive oil (and sugar especially when baking in a home oven, to help browning).

After it is mixed, it is proofed (left to rise/ferment) in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 72 hours (it can also be frozen) – this is the big secret.  I’ve used the dough up to 5 or 6 days afterwards, so you can essentially prepare dough for the week.

This recipe produces a crisp yet foldable crust that is tender, light, and flavorful and will make enough for four 14-inch pizzas. You can easily double or half the recipe to make 2 or 8 pizzas.

slices of ny style pizza

Fourteen Tips for Success

Tip 1: Choosing the flour

Use high-quality flour – I like to use King Arthur’s all purpose or bread flour; higher protein (ie, bread) flours work best. However, I prefer all-purpose flour because I like a lighter, airy crust.

Tip 2: Adding the yeast

Do not add instant dry yeast (IDY) directly to cold or cool water – you may shock the yeast (add the IDY to your flour instead) (please note that IDY differs from active dry yeast, which must be activated by adding it to water).

Tip 3: How much yeast?

Use only enough yeast to “get the job done” – yeast eats the sugar in your flour to produce its leavening effects – I find that if you use too much, your dough will be tasteless (this is just my opinion); however, it is a fact, that too much yeast can make your dough taste bad. Most recipes out there, some of them in well known, published books contain too much yeast!

Tip 4: Cold ferment that pizza dough!

Always use your refrigerator.  The best NY style doughs “ferment” or “cure” in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours and up to 48 72 hours. This is called a “cold rise” (vs warm rise on your kitchen counter).

The refrigerator is used to retard (or slow) the dough’s fermentation, allowing that distinctive flavor to come through (ever wonder why some pizza crust tastes different than others, despite the fact that they are both made from just about the same exact ingredients? – this is a big reason why!)

When your dough rises too quickly, the flavor will not develop optimally. Slow rise = MUCH better flavor.

Tip 5: Weigh those ingredients!

Use a scale to weigh the flour instead of using a measuring cup – it is much more accurate and will yield superior results. I’ll admit, I resisted doing this for a loooong time. Just do it. You’ll be glad you did and your dough will be more consistent and much improved.

Tip 6: Add oil last

Mix the oil in as the last step, after the flour has all been incorporated. This is important to allow the flour to hydrate properly.

Tip 7: Flour your dough balls

Before tossing or opening your dough balls, flour them *very* well on each side (if you are a beginner) to ensure they do not stick to your counter or pizza peel. I sometimes use a bit more flour after I begin spreading them.

Tip 8: Keeping those rims a bit puffy

Take care not to “degas” the rim of your pizza as you are spreading your dough! Do NOT ever use a rolling pin! There are many different methods to spread/open your dough ball. I hope to add a few pictures someday of this process.

Tip 9: Baking pizza in a home oven

Ensure that your oven is preheated for a sufficient amount of time (about 1 hour) and bake the pizza within 6 to 8 inches of the top of your oven (ie, your broiler) so that the tops browns sufficiently in conjunction with the bottom of the pizza.

Do not place the stone near the bottom of your oven. I made this mistake for too many years.

After your stone has been preheated sufficiently, the heat from the stone will cook the pizza from the bottom and you can switch the broiler on if you find you need more browning on the top (I now use the broiler to bake my pizzas…more on this sometime in the future).

If you find that your cheese is browning well before your rim attains sufficient color, use partially frozen cheese (ie, place shredded cheese in the freezer while the oven is heating up) and cold sauce or you can drizzle just a bit of olive oil on top of cheese.

Tip 10: Use a pizza stone or steel

Use a pizza stone if you have one. The stone with draw moisture out of the dough and produce a beautifully crisp crust. I use a pizza steel because my stones kept breaking.

Tip 11: Use just the right amount of sauce

Do not use too much pizza sauce – it will make your pizza soggy

Tip 12: Find the right kind of cheese

Do not use low fat cheese to top your pizza or pre-shredded cheese (the former will not melt sufficiently and the latter contains additives that prevent the cheese from sticking together and therefore does not melt very well). The best is low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella.

If you must use pre-shredded cheese, I’ve found that adding the sauce on top of the cheese helps with the melting. Also, do not use too much cheese; apply it sparingly so that you can achieve that mottled NY pizza appearance.

Tip 13: Flour your pizza peel

Use semolina or flour on the bottom of your pizza peel to prevent the pizza dough from sticking but be careful not to overdo it because it will burn.

Tip 14: Learn to launch that pizza

Give the pizza peel a few very small quick jerks to make sure the pizza will easily slide off your pizza peel before attempting to transfer pizza to the oven, and more importantly, rub flour into the peel before placing the dough on top.

Essential Equipment

Please note that as an Amazon affiliate, we earn a small commission if you purchase a product at no additional cost to you.


I adore my baking steel; it’s transformed my home pizzas into restaurant-quality and better. You will love this! A kitchen scale streamlines measurement with remarkable accuracy, while a pizza peel is essential for smoothly sliding pizzas into the oven. And proofing boxes provide an optimal storage for pizza dough fermentation, enhancing flavor, texture, and elasticity.

Baking steel

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Kitchen scale

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Pizza peel

$28.98
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Proofing

$45.99 ($23.00 / Count)
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Please visit our SHOP page for more recommended tools and equipment to make restaurant-style NY-style pizza at home!

How to Stretch the Pizza Dough

A nice video (from The GoodFellas Pizza School of NY), showing how to stretch the dough:

YouTube video

How to Freeze Homemade Pizza Dough

  • After mixing dough and dividing into balls, place dough in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
  • Place dough balls on baking sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper, cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (~ 2 to 3 hours or up to overnight).
  • Wrap frozen dough balls individually in plastic and store in zipper-lock bags for up to 4 weeks.
  • When ready to bake, transfer unwrapped dough into the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours before making pizza.
  • Bring dough to room temperature for 20 to 60 minutes before baking (less time for hot kitchen/summer and more time for cool kitchen)

Pizza Dough Calculator

Need more dough? Less dough? Try out our new Pizza Dough Calculator to calculate the weights to get it just right!

Have More Questions?

Please See My NY Pizza FAQ

If you tried this recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below! SUBSCRIBE for more recipes.

📖 Recipe

photo of a NY style pizza with slice missing

The Best New York Style Pizza Dough

The best, authentic NY pizza dough recipe for making pizza dough at home. This is the best thin crust pizza ever! You will never want take out again!
4.90 from 660 votes
Author: Marie
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes
Resting time 1 day
Total Time 1 day 21 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian
Servings 32 slices
Calories 91 kcal

Equipment

  • pizza stone or pizza steel for baking
  • Standing mixer optional or hand knead
  • kitchen scale highly recommended instead of volume measures

Ingredients
 

Original Recipe for Four 14-Inch Pizzas; want to make more or less? Use the pizza dough calculator

  • 6.5 cups (796 g) all purpose flour or bread flour (weighing is most accurate!)
  • 2 1/4 cups (493 g) water barely cold water (17.4 oz per 2 1/4 cups)
  • 1 teaspoon (3.5 g) instant dry yeast
  • 2.5 teaspoons (15.6 g) salt
  • 2 teaspoons (7.8 g) sugar
  • 1 tablespoon (11.8 g) olive oil

1 Pound of Dough (~454 grams) (use the pizza dough calculator to make more or less dough)

  • 2 1/4 cups (274.5 g) all purpose flour or bread flour
  • 3/4 cup (170.2 g) water
  • 1/2 teaspoon instant dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil

Instructions
 

Mixing the Dough

  • Place water in mixing bowl.
  • In a separate bowl, mix salt and yeast (and sugar if using) into flour
  • Combine flour/salt/yeast mixture into water and mix until all the flour has been incorporated.
  • After flour has been totally incorporated, add oil and knead for about 4 to 5 minutes (see note)
  • Test final dough temperature, which should ideally be between high 70s to low 80s (optional)

Dividing and Rising

  • Divide dough into 4 equal pieces (using a digital scale if possible; each ball should weigh 11.5 oz [~326 grams]), shape into a ball, and place in greased, sealed quart-sized container or oiled/greased freezer bag and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours (After much experimenting, I have concluded that I like 3 days best but day 2 is good too).

Assembly and Baking

  • The following day, remove your dough balls within 1 hour or less of baking and allow the dough to come to room temperature. (the dough will tend to blister more if the dough has not been allowed to come to room temperature however, I often bake coldish dough without problems, just some bubbling)
  • In the meantime, place your pizza stone in oven and preheat at 550 degrees (depending on thickness of your stone and your oven’s power) for at least 1 hour
  • Open each dough ball using care not to degas, transfer to a pre-floured pizza peel (or on parchment paper), and top with your favorite sauce, cheese, or other toppings.
  • Transfer pizza from peel to oven or slide parchment paper onto preheated pizza pan/stone and bake for 4 to 6 minutes each until browned on top and cheese has melted but not burned.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

Weighing Ingredients 
  • Use of weight based measurements is highly recommended instead of US Customary. You will need a kitchen scale. 
  • METRIC amounts DO NOT correspond exactly to the US Customary amounts because, for example, 796 grams equals 6.4 cups (and most can’t measure 0.4 cups or 0.22 cups). Recipe was based on grams.  
TO MAKE MORE OR LESS DOUGH
KNEADING
  • If you want to use the dough the next day, knead a little more (slow speed for about 8 to 10 minutes)
  • If you have time to let the dough rest for 3 days, knead for 4 to 5 minutes, low speed or hand knead.
TO FREEZE THE DOUGH:
  • After mixing dough and dividing into balls, place dough in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
  • Then, place on baking sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper, cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (~ 2 to 3 hours or up to overnight).
  • Wrap frozen dough balls individually in plastic and store in zipper-lock bags to store for up to 4 weeks (longer may work, but results might vary).
  • Before using, transfer unwrapped dough into the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours before making pizza.
  • Bring dough to room temperature for 20 to 60 minutes before baking (less time for hot kitchen/summer and more time for cool kitchen). 
BAKER’S PERCENTAGES:
  • calculate your own using baker’s percentages: 62% hydration, 0.4% yeast, 2% salt, 1.5% oil, and 1% sugar or use my new pizza dough calculator. 
Have more questions? See our pizza dough FAQ
Nutrition is estimated for one slice of pizza without any toppings. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1SliceCalories: 91kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 3gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0.1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gSodium: 183mgPotassium: 29mgFiber: 1gSugar: 0.3gVitamin A: 0.5IUVitamin C: 0.001mgCalcium: 4mgIron: 1mg
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Try these other pizzas and this NY pizza sauce: 
Buffalo style (one of my absolute favorites)
White with prosciutto
White with spinach and feta
Pizza sauce 

1,823 Comments

  1. Thanks for the tips! Every time I have baked a homemade pizza I always end up wishing I has just ordered in. I will try it again following this recipe and the tips!

    Lila C-Border Mama

  2. This is by far the most authentic pizza dough recipe I have found….The use of bread flour makes all the difference! Thanks for making this displaced New Yorker a little happier.

  3. Hey Marie,

    I was just in the process of writing to you; first of all, I have wonderful new!! I cold fermented my dough since Thursday night, so that was 3 nights of cold fermentation, then with my wings and pub food I made for my guests this evening, I decided to use that 1/4 piece of dough for Garlic Fingers and to put in it a large pizza pan; well, to my surprise it turned out totally excellent!! Everyone raved at how good the Garlic Fingers were!! I preheated the oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit and only let them bake for 6 minutes…Wow! I think you were right about too much dough in my cast iron skillet, that must have always been my problem….thanks again Marie.

  4. Hi Marie,

    I used All Purpose Robin Hood Flour, we don’t have that kind of flour you were illustrating in your ingredients in Canada. I plan on using my pizza pan the next time; maybe there was too much dough in the cast iron skillet. When we used our fork and knife to the cut the pizza it was really crispy and a little hard. No, I don’t have a scale. Should I adjust my temperature to 475 degrees Fahrenheit? Thank you for your help!

    Rose

    1. Hi Rose – The flour you used is fine. It looks like the protein content is similar to my favorite flour. I have a hunch that you used too much dough. You made the whole recipe (6 cups of flour) so if your cast iron pan was 14 inches or smaller, you should have only used about 1/4 of the dough. It shouldn’t take that long to bake and when you overbake it, it will get tough. Baking technique and time are very important. I would not lower the oven temperature, I’d use less dough. The recipe is designed to make 4 pizzas, so you can freeze the extra if it’s too much or simply only make half the recipe to get 2 dough balls. Also, take the dough out of the plastic bags after you take it out of the refrigerator and let it rise on the counter. Hope that all makes sense.

  5. Been looking for a good NY Style pizza to make at home, as we live in Wyoming….and let’s be serioys, Wyoming isn’t on the mapproved for its pizza. We’re at 5,200 feet – any altitude changes?

  6. One more comment on my previous email; I followed the instructions but I put
    6 cups of Flour, (all purpose)
    2¼ cups of Water (cool)
    1 teaspoon Instant dry yeast
    2.5 teaspoons of Salt
    2 teaspoons of Sugar
    3 teaspoons Olive oil
    I still found that it seemed like there was not enough water but I never added more water.

    1. Hi Rose – a few things: what brand of all purpose flour did you use? Also, 13 minutes seems like a very long time to bake a NY pizza especially over 500 degrees? If I had to guess, I’d say your baking would be the issue. The longer you bake it, the more it dries out. But we have to figure out why it’s taking so long to cook. When you say tough, do you mean it didn’t fold, it was too crisp? how much of the dough did you use on the cast iron skillet? Also, do you have a kitchen scale? The best way to make the dough is to weigh the ingredients.

  7. Unfortunately, I don’t have good news; my pizza was still tough/chewy and the crust was hard.
    As indicated above I made my dough last night and let it cold ferment overnight, then I let it rise in the Ziploc bag in olive oil for one hour. I watched the video on how to stretch the dough and it was looking pretty good, and it stretched out perfectly as well. Then I put a large cast iron skillet in the oven for one hour on 520 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I put my sauce cheese, bacon and green peppers on the dough and transferred it to the preheated cast iron pan and then to the oven. I let it bake for about 13 minutes. What am I doing wrong? I would greatly appreciate any help!

  8. I’ve been trying pizza recipes for years and they always turn out tough, I find the whole pizza turns out tough; last night I made the dough and put it in the refrigerator overnight; I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out for my family. Fingers Crossed!

    1. Hi Rose – in addition to the recipe, the way you bake pizza can cause it to be tough. In general, if you bake it too long at too low of a temperature you run the risk of drying it out. Hope you like the recipe!

  9. Thanks, I guess it was just the way I read it! Dividing the ingredients in half to make two pizzas now makes sense.

  10. In your title you state…..

    This recipe make four 14″ pizzas or can be halved to make two 14-inch pizzas
    Author: Marie B, Feeling Foodish

    Is the above a typing error? How can it make four 14″ pizzas and also make two 14″ pizzas?

    1. Hi Brian – in other words, you can divide the recipe ingredients in half (ie, use only half of each ingredient) and make 2 pizzas instead of 4. Does that make more sense?

  11. Hi Marie,

    When do you actually do the dough stretching? Your recipe appears to jump from putting the dough balls into the fridge at step 6 and then removing them at step 9 to add the topping?

    regards…..Brian

    1. Hi Brian – In step 9, “open the dough ball” means to press it out into the flat round shape. It’s probably not the best way to explain it – i’ll clarify in the directions

  12. 5 stars
    Hello there!

    Been looking for a recipe for years and this was delicious, so thanks in advance for posting. One question, however, is that my dough was not very elastic at all. I used Fleischmann’s Bread Machine yeast with 00 flour, in the exact proportions you have listed. Any thoughts on whether or not it was the yeast that had an effect on that? I did the slow rise for 72 hours as well.

    Any thoughts would be appreciated and thank you again!

    Cheers

    1. Hi! I don’t think it has anything to do with your yeast. Next time, do not add the salt until you have mixed the other ingredients for a minute or 2 and see if that helps. Salt tightens the gluten network and by holding it back until later in mixing you can get a more extensible dough. Hope that helps!

      1. 5 stars
        Hi Marie,

        Thanks for the response. Quick update here. I replaced the 00 flour with unbleached AP flour and also let the dough rest, and the flour hydrate, for 5 minutes after the wet and dry ingredients were initially mixed for a minute. A two day rest yielded a dough that was spectacular, great elasticity and extensibility. Oh, and it was beyond delicious. Thanks again for the blog and the recipe, it’s a keeper.

        Cheers!

  13. Greetings from Finland!

    This recipe is great, thank you for sharing it! I have one problem tough, the pizza get stucked to the peel when im trying to move it to the pizza rock in the oven. Then I must force it to move by shaking and fillings drop everywhere..

    I drop a lot of flour to peel before using it… but it is not helping. What else could I do ?

    Thank you!

    1. Hi Paulie – try sprinkling the top and bottom of the dough with a generous amount of flour before you press it out into a pizza and also, when you flour your peel make sure you are rubbing the flour into the peel (assuming it is a wooden peel) and not just sprinkling. you can also lift the edges of the pizza and throw some extra flour under if you are in a bind – that has helped me a few times. Hope this helps

  14. 5 stars
    Having moved from New York to Chicago, I have found it very difficult to get real New York pizza. The crust is either too thick or too crunchy, or the sauce is too much like spaghetti sauce. And they cut it in squares.
    Also, I love anchovies on my pizza, and since no one else in my life does, I needed to figure out how to have anchovy pizza without explaining to someone at a pizza parlor that no, this isn’t a prank call.

    I used your dough and your sauce recipe. I let the dough cold rise for two days. My breadstone is thin, and my oven only goes up to 525, so I preheated it for an hour and put it in the second-highest rack. It took about 8-9 minutes per pizza. I made anchovy, pepperoni, 2-cheese, and bacon and shallot pizzas for my boyfriend and I, figuring we would have some cold pizza for breakfast tomorrow morning.

    He was surprised. He was shocked. He was very happy. He nearly ate two of them by himself (not the one with anchovies). He’s a parochial Chicago native who didn’t understand the big deal over New York pizza until today. Thanks!

  15. 5 stars
    Finally!!!! Thank you so much! I, like many have tried different recipes for many, many years and this is NY pizza dough! I could not wait and only waited about 24 hours. 1st attempt and it tastes great, streched great and crunched great! I will make my next one tomorrow and one on day 3 to see the difference. After streching, I put the dough on parchment paper and then added sauce and cheese. Then I put the pie on my stone with the floured paper and let it cook a minute or 2 and then went back in and pulled the paper out from the bottom of the pie. Fantastic!

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